Unfortunately I was unable to attend the Social Explorer talk with Sydney Beveridge due to a previous engagement, however I took a look at the NY Times article provided as well as the website itself. What I find most interesting is the way that the wide range of data is able to be produced and displayed on each of the maps. Also I am a very visual person, so I think being able to see the data laid out like that rather than written out or simply in a table makes it more interesting and more accesible to a wide range of people. I think this is especially important when writing news articles or doing reports to a larger audience who can see and will be able to interpret faster than if it were simply using words.